Fans are referring to Ratliff as 'dominant' when the guy's stat line is a flat line.

He hasn't played much at all and when he has he hasn't been the difference-maker he's being paid to be.

Good thing for me that I'm not invested in a Ratliff jersey to cloud my judgement.

I can see that he's not worth close to what he's being paid and with a bad attitude on top of it needs to go be someone else's problem.

I wasn't a fan of extending Rat...I'd have franchised him and then let him walk this season, and I thought last season he'd really lost a step. At his age, DTs almost never continue to produce, much less get better after the significant elbow injury. You can't count on many players like LaRoi Glover justifying that second-contract premium on your roster after the body breaks down.

That said, Rat was an absolute beast in limited action this year. I was pleasantly shocked how good he looked early on. I don't know what the stat line says for the games he played, but if he's back and healthy, we definitely need him. The only shot this team's got against good teams is to get ahead of them on the scoreboard and make teams one-dimensional, and then put pressure on their QBs. Rat could be huge in that regard if he's able to come back. Especially with Brees and RGIII coming up in a few weeks.

People were calling Witten washed up and in dire need of being replaced in the off-season after Week 3. We don't see those opinions much anymore, since he's now leading all NFL TEs in most major statistical categories.

Which is to say, there's not exactly a lot of rational thought and level headed longterm vision by the fans and media surrounding this team.

How many games has Witten missed? Man you can't even make that comparison. Sorry, but I am not w/ you in this one.

I just don't know why we re-signed him when he was already under a friendly contract. There was no need.

Honestly, I don't remember the specifics of what I thought (though I'd also have signed Spencer instead of franchising him). Did he have another year left? I might have thought to let him play out the string with the option of franchising him and letting him walk a year later if he was still playing good football. Generally, though, he was too old and too likely to get hurt to extend, and we were being generous to a player we'd had at a very affordable price in his previous contract.

Good teams use their cap money wisely. This is another good example of how there will be dead cap money on the books which prevent signing high quality players to the roster. Ratliff is on the way out.

Easily one of the dumbest extensions Jerry has handed out, and there have been many.

I wasn't a fan of extending Rat...I'd have franchised him and then let him walk this season, and I thought last season he'd really lost a step. At his age, DTs almost never continue to produce, much less get better after the significant elbow injury. You can't count on many players like LaRoi Glover justifying that second-contract premium on your roster after the body breaks down.

Why would you have franchised him?

He still had 2 years left on his deal when Dallas gave him the extension. I believe it would have been 2011 and 2012.

So, you could have just let him play out his original contract if you were going to let him walk after this season.

I just never understood the contract extension unless it was a reward for outperforming his previous deal.

He still had 2 years left on his deal when Dallas gave him the extension. I believe it would have been 2011 and 2012.

So, you could have just let him play out his original contract if you were going to let him walk after this season.

I just never understood the contract extension unless it was a reward for outperforming his previous deal.

I mentioned above, I should have said 'play out the balance of the contract and then franchise him if you wanted another year and he was still playing at a high level.' But the point's the same: I agree, the Ratliff extension was a mistake.

I wasn't a fan of extending Rat...I'd have franchised him and then let him walk this season, and I thought last season he'd really lost a step. At his age, DTs almost never continue to produce, much less get better after the significant elbow injury. You can't count on many players like LaRoi Glover justifying that second-contract premium on your roster after the body breaks down.

I'm with you here.

It was not a good move. I agree with everything you say above and would add this. Ratliff is very undersized for his position of 3-4 nose tackle, so the clock is ticking even moreso on his career because of that fact. Normal-sized 3'4 NT's take a beating, it's even more amplified when you're undersized.

That said, Rat was an absolute beast in limited action this year. I was pleasantly shocked how good he looked early on. I don't know what the stat line says for the games he played, but if he's back and healthy, we definitely need him. The only shot this team's got against good teams is to get ahead of them on the scoreboard and make teams one-dimensional, and then put pressure on their QBs. Rat could be huge in that regard if he's able to come back. Especially with Brees and RGIII coming up in a few weeks.

The numbers don't back that up at all.

He's got 16 total tackles (10 solo and 6 assists) and 1 pass defensed in the 6 games he played.

We differ in that I'm not holding out hope for the playoffs, so I would prefer to make long-term moves and decisions based on next year and the years following.

I don't think you can move forward with Ratliff after this year. IIRC his cap hit for 2013 is something like $7 million if he plays here. There is no way that Ratliff is worth 7$ million at this point in his career.

Good teams use their cap money wisely. This is another good example of how there will be dead cap money on the books which prevent signing high quality players to the roster. Ratliff is on the way out.

And Free, too. If you look at his outrageous base salary next season there's no way the Cowboys can possibly keep him.